Amy Morin: 50 Plays for Your Worst Day at Work

About this episode

Amy Morin discusses practical strategies for improving mental strength at work.

What if the thing standing between you and a better day at work isn't a new habit—but just knowing which play to run? Amy Morin is the psychotherapist behind the 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do series, which has sold over a million copies and sparked one of the most-watched TEDx talks of all time. Her new book, The Mental Strength Playbook , takes a different tack. Where her earlier work was preventative, this one is urgent care. Fifty plays you can run in the moment you need them: before the presentation, during the spiral, in the middle of a task that feels completely pointless. Caitlin and Amy get into why positive thinking can actually leave you less prepared, what happens in your brain when you step away from a problem and the answer shows up in the shower, and a surprisingly simple vagus nerve trick that can drop your anxiety in thirty seconds. You'll also hear how Amy arrived at this work through personal loss that reshaped everything she thought she knew about helping people. Mental strength isn't about pushing through pain at all costs. It's about having enough clarity on your own values to know which battles are yours—and enough flexibility to let the rest go…

People in this episode

Host: Caitlin Schiller

Guest: Amy Morin

Topics covered

• mental strength
• workplace strategies
• psychotherapy
• personal development
• anxiety management

Keywords

• mental strength
• workplace anxiety
• psychotherapy
• self-help
• personal development

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Mental Strength Playbook, 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do, How to Not Know, Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

More episodes of Simplify

• Deb Caulet: Essential Leadership Skills for the Age of AI · May 18, 2026 · 51 min
• Dr. Arielle Schwartz: Your Body Knows Before Your Brain Does · May 4, 2026 · 47 min
• Angela Natividad: Meet The God Inside Capitalism · April 20, 2026 · 54 min
• Nani Jansen Reventlow: How To Actually Change The World · April 6, 2026 · 42 min
• Guy Winch: First Aid for Your Work Life · March 23, 2026 · 56 min
• David Richo: Better Than Revenge · March 9, 2026 · 39 min